children missing education - home | ncb · pdf file · 2018-01-30children missing...

Robyn Ellison and Dustin Hutchinson, January 2018

Children missing education

Children missing from education in

England 2016-17

Children missing education Robyn Ellison and Dustin Hutchinson

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Executive summary A child is defined in law as ‘missing education’ if he/she:

is not registered at a school; and

is not receiving suitable education otherwise than at school.

Missing education affects children’s educational attainment, and can also impede

socialisation. There are also serious safeguarding concerns around children missing

education who may be at risk of abuse and exploitation, becoming involved in criminal

or gang-related activity, and radicalisation.

In October 2017, NCB submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all local

authorities in England asking:

How many children were recorded as missing education (CME) in England for the

year 2016/17;1

What proportion of CME qualified for free school meals (as an indicator of poverty

and social disadvantage); and

What proportion of CME were known to social services (as an indicator of

challenging family circumstances including abuse and neglect).2

Children missing education

Data provided by 136 local authorities in England shows that 49,187 children were

reported as missing education (“CME”) at some point in 2016/17 (70 in every 10,000

children). This compares with 33,262 children recorded as CME in 90 local

authorities in 2015/16.

Links with poverty and deprivation

One in five (22 percent) children recorded as CME in 2016/17 were in receipt of

free school meals when last on a school roll, compared with 13 percent of all

school aged children.

15 percent of children recorded as CME were known to social services.

Policy Implications

An alarming number of children are missing education - 49,187 in 2016/17 -

especially as they are at high risk of poor outcomes.

The data suggests children missing education are more likely to be living in poverty.

It also suggests that 15 percent of children missing education are known to social

services, raising questions about whether this vulnerable group are getting the

support they need.

There are significant gaps in the data on vulnerable children. Many local authorities

did not record or provide figures for whether their CME are in receipt of free schools

meals and/or are known to social services.

The number of children recorded as missing education varies greatly between

local authorities, but the reasons for this variation are not clear.


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Recommendations for the Department of Education

Collect and analyse national-level data on children missing education, and publish

an annual report to include:

o The number of children recorded as missing education in every local

authority, including how many children qualified for free school meals and

how many were known to social services; and

o The length of time for which a child was missing education (e.g. less than

one month, one-three months, three-six months etc.).

Revise the statutory guidance on children missing education to include:

o How to record data about children missing education and how to share that

data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and safeguarding

law and guidance;

o How to improve understanding of overlapping vulnerabilities, by recording

e.g. whether children missing education are eligible for free school meals

and whether they are known to social services; and

o A requirement to use a single identifier for each child missing education

across all agencies to encourage prevention, facilitate safeguarding and

ensure children can be more easily traced.

Conduct a review into the variation in the number of children recorded as missing

education across local authorities.

Support local authorities and schools to share best practice across England.


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1. Introduction Data on children missing education (“CME”) is not collected at a national level,

meaning an FOI to local authorities is one of the only mechanisms for estimating

how many children are missing education across England. There is no official

government figure.

Our research suggests that tens of thousands of children are missing out on

education each year. These children are often very vulnerable, and may be at risk

of abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, and radicalisation, as well as academic

underachievement and poor outcomes.3

Definition

Children missing education (CME) are defined as: ‘children of compulsory school

age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable

education otherwise than at a school’.4

A child can become CME for a variety of reasons. They may have moved into a

different local authority or from abroad and find no school place available. They

may have been withdrawn from school because of bullying, or there may be no

school places available that can meet their special educational needs. They may

have been unofficially excluded from school, or taken off the school roll after a long

period of unexplained absence5.

Risk factors

In 2017 NCB received funding from Lankelly Chase to undertake qualitative research

into the experiences of children missing education.6 This research found that a series

of complex and often interrelated factors can lead to a child missing education,

including:

The individual child’s feelings and preferences (e.g. mental ill-health, fear of

school, past experience/trauma );

Problems in the family and home (e.g. domestic violence, family breakdown,

caring responsibilities, parental illiteracy);

The school environment (e.g. special educational needs (SEN) and/or

disabilities, social and emotional problems, unsuitable placements, unofficial

exclusions, bullying); and

Wider systems and society (e.g. moving to/from another local authority or

abroad).

Some groups of children are particularly at risk of missing education. These include:

frequent movers, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, disabled children and those

with SEN, teenage mothers, young carers, refugees/asylum seekers, children in care

and young offenders.

There are serious safeguarding concerns around CME. Whilst they will not be

receiving a suitable education, they are also at risk of abuse and exploitation,

becoming involved in criminal or gang-related activity, and radicalisation.7


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Legal duties

Local authorities have a duty under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to make

arrangements to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, children missing education. 8

Under the statutory guidance, schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s

name is to be removed from the admission register, and local authorities should

record this information.9 Where a pupil does not attend school for 20 consecutive

days of unauthorised absence10, the guidance states that the school and local

authority should jointly make “reasonable enquiries” to establish the child’s

whereabouts before taking the child off the roll. (see Appendix 1)

Data on children missing education

The number of children missing education is poorly recorded, and available

evidence has been described as conflicting and unreliable, due in part to the lack

of national monitoring and confusing datasets.11 Similarly, pathways for these

children, their experiences and outcomes are not well understood.

In 2014, NCB conducted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to ascertain a

snapshot of the number of CME in England.12 It found that over 14,800 children were

missing education across England at any one time.13 The whereabouts of

approximately 3,000 of these children was unknown.14 The resulting report

recommended a Department for Education led review of CME and an assessment

of existing systems for national and local data collection and monitoring.

In 2016, the BBC conducted another FOI request15 showing that 33,262 school-aged

children were recorded as missing from education in the academic year ending July

2015.16

NCB has conducted this latest FOI to determine the number of children missing from

education in England in 2016-17. We chose to ask about the number of children

missing education over the course of a year rather than collecting “snap shot” data

from a single point in time, in order to provide a comparison with the most recent

figures from the BBC’s FOI in 2016.17

“All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to an efficient, full time

education which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special

educational needs they may have.“ (Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance

for Local Authorities, 2016)

“Children missing education are at significant risk of underachieving, being victims of

harm, exploitation or radicalisation, and becoming NEET (not in education,

employment or training) later in life.” (Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance

for Local Authorities, 2016)


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Government agenda

Since NCB’s initial research in 2014, the Department for Education has updated the

statutory guidance on CME, to include duties on schools to:

Notify the local authority when they are about to remove a pupil from the

school admission register;18

Provide the local authority with details about the child19; and

Make “reasonable enquiries” to establish the whereabouts of the child jointly

with the local authority before removing the pupils form the register.20

The 2016 guidance did not reflect wider NCB recommendations, including to assess

data collection and monitoring and to introduce national data collection.

However, Government and Parliament are currently considering issues related to

children missing education, providing potential opportunities for reform of the

system.

The Education Select Committee launched an inquiry into alternative

provision in September 2017.21 Many children missing education experience

alternative provision settings, and there is likely to be overlap between these

cohorts.

In December 2017, The Department for Education launched ‘Unlocking

Talent, Fulfilling Potential: A plan for improving social mobility through

education’.22 This new agenda, explicitly references vulnerable groups,

including children in care and disabled children, all of whom are at greater

risk of missing education.

‘Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance for local authorities’ will be

reviewed by September 2019.


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2. Findings from the 2017 FOI request

Data provided by 137 local authorities shows that 49,187 children were reported as

missing education at some point in 2016/17 (this amounts to 70 of every 10,000

children or 0.7 percent of the total school age population up to age 16). This

compares to 33,262 children recorded as CME in 90 local authorities in 2015/16.23

In 2016-17, a median average of 222 children in each local authority were recorded

as missing education at some point in the year. This equates to more than seven

classrooms of children in every area.

However, there is huge variation in the numbers of children recorded as CME across

local authorities. The three local authorities with the highest rates of CME had 419,

366 and 350 CME per 10,000 school aged children, whilst the lowest had 2, 2 and 3

CME per 10,000 school aged children. 24 It is unclear why variation is so high.

However, it is likely that despite there being a statutory definition of children missing

education in law and guidance, local authorities are reporting and recording data

differently.

Table 1: local authorities with the highest (A, B and C) and lowest (D, E and F)

proportion of CME.

Local authority Total no of children

reported as missing

education

Total school aged

population

Rate of CME per

10,000 children

A 2,077 49,562 419

B 1,605 43,876 366

C 1,93 31,246 350

D 23 66,443 3

E 16 67,308 2

F 6 37,640 2


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Methodology

In October 2017, NCB issued a Freedom of Information request to all 152 local authorities

in England. We asked:

1. How many children were recorded as missing from education in the academic

year 2016/2017, in your local authority?

2. Of the children recorded as missing from education during this period, how many

were in receipt of free school meals, when last on a school roll?

3. Of the children recorded as missing from education during this period, how many

were known to social services?

The request included the statutory definition of CME: ‘Children missing education are

children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not

receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school’ (Children Missing Education

Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, 2016).

Of the 152 local authorities who were contacted, 145 responded. Of these 137 provided

data for question 1, 59 for question 2 and 94 for question 3.

Response to question 1: How many children were recorded as missing from

education in the academic year 2016/2017, in your local authority?

Number

of local

authorities

Provided data 136

Could not provide a response/do not record or hold the information

requested/cited cost exemption.25

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No substantive response 7

Total 152

Children in receipt of free schools meals

Data provided by 58 local authorities shows that 22 percent of children recorded as

missing education (3,911 children) were in receipt of free school meals when last on

a school roll,26 compared with 13 percent of all children in the same local

authorities.27 Given that eligibility for free schools meals is linked to an assessment of

family income and is dependent on receipt of certain benefits, the data suggests a

potential link between missing education and poverty or other forms of

disadvantage.28


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Notably, rates of children recorded as CME who received free school meals when

last on a school roll vary significantly between local authorities. Looking at local

authorities who reported at least 50 CME in total, those with the highest proportion of

CME in receipt of free schools meals were recorded at 65 percent, 52 percent and

49 percent. The three with the lowest proportion had 0 percent, 1 percent and 2

percent respectively. It is unclear why there are such high levels of variation in the

proportion of CME in receipt of free school meals. Differences in data recording and

collection may account for some of the variation.

Table 2: local authorities with the highest (A, B and C) and lowest (D, E and F)

proportion of CME in receipt of free schools meals (of local authorities with at least 50

CME in total)

Local Authority Total number of children

reported as missing

education (CME) in the

local authority

Total number of CME

in receipt of free

school meals when

last on a school roll

Proportion of CME in

receipt of free school

meals

A 534 347 65%

B 374 193 52%

C 180 88 49%

D 244 5 2%

E 978 13 1%

F 386 0 0%

3,911, 22%

13,888, 78%

Children missing education in receipt of free schools meals when last on a school roll

Children missing education not in receipt of free school meals when last on a school roll

Figure 1: Proportion of children missing education in receipt of free school meals when

last on a school roll, 58 local authorities


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Children known to social services

Data provided by 94 local authorities shows that 15 percent of children recorded as

CME are known to social services.29 This amounts to 4,632 children. This is concerning,

since children known to social services are particularly vulnerable, and have

generally been referred by other professionals such as schools or the police.30 If

children already known to social services are missing out on education this raises

questions about whether these children are receiving the right support.

There is no national figure for the total number of children known to social services in

England.31 However we know that 5.5 percent of all children were referred to social

services in 2016/17.32

Figure 2: Proportion of children missing education known to social services, 94 local

authorities

As with free school meals, the proportion of children missing education who were

known to social services varied significantly between local authorities. Looking at

local authorities who reported at least 50 CME in total, those with the highest

proportion of CME known to social services were at 71 percent, 56 percent and 54

percent. At the other end of the spectrum, 6 local authorities reported that 0

percent of children recorded as missing education were known to social services.

Again, it is unclear why there are such high levels of variation between local

authorities and differences in data recording and collection may account for some

of the variation.

Gaps in data collection

Of the 136 councils who provided data in response to our FOI request, more than

half (86) said they were unable to provide figures for the number of CME in receipt of

free schools meals33 and 51 were unable to provide this information for the number

of CME known to children’s services.34 Several local authorities stated that the data

on children missing education was held on a separate system to the data on the

4,632, 15%

25,479, 85%

Children missing education known to social services

Children missing education not known to social serrvices


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number of children who qualified for free school meals and/or who were known to

social services. As this data was kept on separate systems, several local authorities

reported that it was not possible to cross-reference individual children without

manually checking each case which would exceed the 18 hours cost exemption for

FOI requests.35


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3. Implications for policy makers

and recommendations Findings from the new FOI shed light on the scale of children missing education in

England, highlight gaps in data collection, and point to areas for improvement in

policy and practice.

Implications for policy makers

The high number of children missing education in 2016/17 – 49,187 – is alarming,

especially as CME are at high risk of poor outcomes.

Based on the data we received, the proportion of CME who have been eligible

for free school meals is 8 percentage points higher than for the whole school-

age population, indicating a potential link with poverty.

Based on the data we received, 15 percent of CME were known to social

services. This raises questions about whether this vulnerable group are getting the

support they need. There is no national figure for the total number of children

known to social services in England.36 However we know that 5.5 percent of all

children were referred to social services in 2016/17.37

A high proportion of local authorities did not record, or were unable to provide

figures for, CME who were in receipt of free schools meals and/or known to

social services, demonstrating a lack of easily accessible data on this vulnerable

group.

The Children Missing Education Guidance (2016) states that “children may be

missing from education because they are suffering from abuse or neglect”.

However, current data recording practices do not facilitate an easy assessment

of the cross-over between missing education and children at risk of harm.

The significant levels of variation in the numbers of children reported as missing

education between local authorities needs to be better understood. The

Department for Education should establish whether the reported variation is an

actual reflection of the situation or whether it is a result of reporting/recording

methods.

Recommendations

There is an urgent need to improve data collection and information sharing.

The Department for Education should:

Collect and analyse national-level data on children missing education, and

publish an annual report.

o This should include the number of children recorded as missing

education in every local authority, including how many children

qualified for free school meals and how many were known to social

services.

o It should also include the length of time for which a child was missing

education (e.g. less than one month, one-three months, three-six

months etc.).


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Revise the statutory guidance (due to be reviewed in 2019) to include:

o Guidance on how to record data about children missing education

and how to share that data in accordance with the Data Protection

Act 1998 and safeguarding law and guidance;

o Best practice on how a local authority should maintain a record of

children missing education including information such as eligibility for

free school meals and whether they are known to social services,

length of time they have been missing education, and comprehensive

demographic information, to help promote a better understanding of

overlapping vulnerabilities within this group; and

o A requirement that a single identifier be used for each child missing

education across all agencies to encourage prevention, facilitate

safeguarding and ensure children can be more easily traced. We

recommend this be the child’s National Health Service number.

Conduct a review into the variation in the number of children recorded as

missing education across local authorities. Specifically, the review should

consider the extent to which local demographics and/or local education

practice have an impact.

Work in partnership with the Local Government Association and the

Association of Directors of Children’s Services to support local authorities and

schools to share best practice across England.


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Appendix 1: Statutory duties on local authorities and

schools

Duties on local authorities

The statutory guidance sets out local authorities’ responsibilities towards children

missing education.38

The Guidance states that local authorities:

Have a duty “to make arrangements to establish the identities of children in

their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving

suitable education otherwise”;

Have a duty to ensure all children who are identified as missing education

return to full-time education “either at school or in alternative provision”.39

Should have robust children missing education policies and procedures in

place, including tracking and enquiry systems;

Should have a named person for schools and other agencies to make

referrals to;

Should “undertake regular reviews and evaluate their processes” to ensure

they continue to be fit for purpose in identifying children missing education

in their area;

The Guidance stipulates that local authorities’ responsibilities towards CME “play an

important role in fulfilling the local authority’s wider safeguarding duties”.40

Duties on schools

The Guidance also sets out schools’ responsibilities towards children missing

education.

It states that schools must:

Monitor pupils’ attendance through daily registers;

Regularly report the details of pupils who are consistently absent from

school, or have missed ten school days or more without permission, to the

local authority;

Notify the local authority when they are about to remove a pupil’s name

from their admissions register and give the reason for this removal; 41

Where a pupil does not attend school, the guidance states that the school should

make “reasonable enquiries” jointly with the local authority to establish the child’s

whereabouts.


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Endnotes

1 This request was conducted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Freedom of

Information Act 2000 states that public bodies are bound to respond to a FOI request with 20 days with the

information requested unless they don’t hold the information, or it would take more than 18 hours to compile the

information. If it would take more the 18 hours they can cite the cost exemption. Full wording of the 2017 FOI

request is available on the NCB website: www.ncb.org.uk

2 The Children Missing Education guidance does not place a duty on local authorities to record the number of CME

in receipt of free school meals or known to social services. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-

missing-education

3 NCB, ‘Children missing education families’ experiences’, March 2017.

4 Department for Education (2016) ‘Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’.

5 NCB (2017) ‘Children missing education: families’ experiences’. 6 NCB (2017) Children missing education: families’ experiences.

7 Ibid. Note: this research included a literature review; interviews with 17 families and missing education officers from

3 local authorities; focus groups with local stakeholders.

8 See Education Act 1996.

9 Department for Education (2016) ‘Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’.

10 Or after 10 days unauthorised absence following an authorised absence. See Department for Education

‘Children missing education statutory guidance for local authorities’ September 2016.

11 NCB (2017) Children missing education: families’ experiences

12 The FOI request asked: the total number and percentage of children of compulsory school age in the local

authority who are recorded as missing; and any statistical breakdown of the different groups of CME or reasons why

these children are recorded as missing

13 NCB (2014) Not present, what future? This FOI request focussed on the number of children missing at any one

time, as opposed to the 2017 FOI request and the 2016 BBC request, which looked at children missing at any point

during the year.

14 Ibid.

15 BBC (November 2016) ‘Thousands of children 'missing' from education’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-

38145058.

16 90 local authorities responded to this FOI request.

17 BBC (November 2016) ‘Thousands of children 'missing' from education’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38145058. 18 Under any of the fifteen grounds listed in the regulations

19 When removing a pupil’s name, the notification to the local authority must include: (a) the full name of the pupil,

(b) the full name and address of any parent with whom the pupil normally resides, (c) at least one telephone

number of the parent, (d) the pupil’s future address and destination school, if applicable, and (e) the ground in

regulation 8 under which the pupil’s name is to be removed from the admission register

20 Department for Education (2016) Children Missing Education Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities

21 Education Select Committee (2017) Alternative provision inquiry

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news-

parliament-2017/alternative-provision-inquiry-2017-19-/

22 Department for Education (2017) Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential: A plan for improving social mobility through

education

23 ‘Thousands of children missing from education’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38145058

24 Some variation can be explained by the fact that local authorities vary significantly by child population, however

this does not explain everything. (This analysis excludes Isle of Sicily and City of London due to small child population

size). Please note, all CME are included in this calculation. In accordance with the guidance, this includes children

who were recorded as CME for a matter of days through to 12+ months.

25 See endnote 1. 26 The Universal Infant Free School Meals programme means free schools meals are available to all infant pupils

regardless of household income or benefit claims. It is unclear whether local authorities included children receiving

free school meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meals programme in the figures they provided or whether

the figures only reflect the number of children and young people who were eligible based on household income

and benefit receipt.

27 This figure is calculated based on the number of pupils who are eligible for and claiming free school meals based

on household income and benefit receipt. It does not include pupils claiming a free school meal under the Universal

Infant Free School Meals programme. See Department for Education, ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics:

January 2017’.

28 In England in January 2016, children in state-funded schools were entitled to receive free schools meals if a

parent or carer were in receipt of any of the following benefits: Income Support, Income-based Jobseekers

Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, support under Part VI of the Immigration and

Asylum Act 1999, the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit (provided they were not also

entitled to Working Tax Credit and had an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38145058


16

Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), Working Tax Credit

run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for

Working Tax Credit, and during the initial roll out of

the benefit, Universal Credit (this category was

added from 29 April 2013). Additionally, all infant

pupils were entitled to receive free school meals

from September 2014. See Department for

Education, ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics:

January 2016’.

29 Variation in local practice means reporting and

recording mechanisms of children who have been

referred to social services are not uniform across

local authorities. However, in undertaking this

research NCB undertook reasonable precautions to

ensure the term ‘known to social services’ was well

understood by children’s services departments,

including testing different forms of words with local

authority staff. Nonetheless, since there is no legal

definition of the term there is likely to be some

variation in how it was interpreted. We found a total

of 4,101 children reported as missing education were

known to social services.

30 Department for Education ‘Characteristics of

children in need: 2016-2017’

31 “Known to social services” includes all children

who have been referred to children’s services, who

are still under the age of 18 and for whom a record

still exists. There is no requirement on local authorities

to report on this number so there is no national data

on this. 32 Department for Education, ‘Characteristics of

children in need: 2016-2017’.

33 19 local authorities were unable to give this

information due to the cost exemption, 57 did not

hold this information and 10 were unable to respond

for other reasons

34 20 local authorities were unable to give this

information due to the cost exemption, 24 did not

hold this information and 7 were unable to respond

for other reasons

35 See endnote 1.

36 “Known to social services” includes all children

who have been referred to children’s services, who

are still under the age of 18 and for whom a record

still exists. There is no requirement on local authorities

to report on this number so there is no national data

on this. 37 Department for Education, ‘Characteristics of

children in need: 2016-2017’.

38 Department for Education (2016) ‘Children

Missing Education Statutory Guidance for local

authorities’.

39 Ibid. Local authorities are required to make

arrangements to provide suitable education,

otherwise than at school, for children who would not

receive suitable education for any period of time

without such provision (Section 19 of the Education

Act 1996).

40 Department for Education (2016) Children Missing

Education Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities

41 The guidance places a duty on schools to record

pupils on admissions registers on their first agreed or

notified day of attendance.


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About NCB NCB is a leading children’s charity working to build a better childhood for every child.

We listen to children and young people and work with those supporting them to develop

evidence on what needs to be done to enable children to enjoy their right to be safe,

secure and supported so they can flourish and fulfil their potential.

Visit www.ncb.org.uk for more information

Contact: Robyn Ellison ([email protected])

http://www.ncb.org.uk/

mailto:[email protected]


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